News in April of 2013

 

It is obvious what the civil war in Syria is all about. The United States, Saudi Arabia, and Israel are in unison in wanting the war in Syria to continue (as a means to overthrow Assad and install a pro-Western leader in Syria). We realize that all 3 nations worked together in wanting to overthrow the Syrian government via sectarian extremists back in 2007. Now, we witness even the reactionary regime of Qatar sending tons of weapons to the militants in Syria. We know that Al-Qaeda's Syrian franchise called Jabhat al-Nusra is the best armed and most well equipped militant front in the conflict.   These U.S., Saudi, and Israel backed terrorists continue to use a myriad of horrendous atrocities against all of the Syrian population from Sunnis, Christians, and even Sunni Muslims. The Western establishment wants the destruction of Syria. They just use democracy and sectarianism as guises in the midst of their real agenda of continued imperialism. Even the U.S. Department admitted that Syria faces a threat from al-Qaeda. They want a blockade of arms and aid from reaching the government to fight terrorists. These terrorists are in every major Syrian city. Since 2007, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Israel wanted to use groups like the sectarian Muslim Brotherhood including groups sympathetic to Al Qaeda as a means to overthrow Assad. Even in 2013, Sunni Muslims are being murdered if they refuse to participate in the destruction of the current Syrian state. The rebels made a mortar bombardment of Damascus University. This killed 15 and injured dozens more. There was the recent brutal slaying of 2 prominent Sunni Muslim clerics, which one of them was beheaded. His body was paraded in the streets of Aleppo and his head hung from the mosque where he preached in. So, these criminals had no respect for religious freedom at all. The West lied and said that these victims were pro-government.  The truth is that these forces are funded, armed, directed, and supported by overseas groups. These groups are not representative of all of the Syrian people at all. This proxy war has violated international law. The West has given weapons to these weapons via Jordan and NATO member nation Turkey. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry claims that Western delivery of weapons to the rebels is directed to moderates. Yet, the most armed and militarily equipped rebel group is that Al-Qaeda terror front Jabhat al-Nusra. The AP said that the Syrian opposition activists estimate that there are 15-20 different brigades fighting in or around Damascus. Many have the al-Qaeda flags. The NY Times in their June 2012 article mention that the CIA is said to steer arms to Syrian opposition groups. These agents are working in southern Turkey. The New York Times’ more recent March 2013 article, “Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With Aid From C.I.A.,” outlines information that it is admitted that weapons are being funneled into Syria across both its borders with Turkey and Jordan. So, the CIA is funding military aid sent to Syrian opposition fighters via Arabic governments and Turkey. We know that Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been sending military materials via Turkey to the opposition in early and late 2012. In Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh’s 2007 New Yorker article,  “The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?” the conspiracy of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Israel to use the Muslim Brotherhood or even al-Qaeda related groups to aid the destruction of Syria has been mapped out since at least 2007. Long term, the Western elites want to undermine or control Iran. So, Syria is being attacked by foreign assault and terrorist proxy groups. These terrorists are violating international and national laws. The Syrian people have the right to handle their own affairs without imperialism or terrorist bombings of their own sovereign territory. The West could even use terrorist proxies in Iran, China amongst the Uighurs. The region of the Uighurs is rich in oil and gas resources. The U.S. is allied with the separatist Uighur movement.

 

Mary Prince was a famous Afro-Caribbean hero. She was born into slavery. Her own autobiography entitled, "...The History of Mary Prince" from 1831 was the first account of the life of a black woman to be published in the United Kingdom. Her firsthand account described numerous important events of her life. It described the brutalities of enslavement. Slavery at the time, when the autobiography was released ,was still legal in British Caribbean colonies. The book galvanizes more of the anti-slavery movement. Mary Prince's parents were both slaves. She was often flogged by evil folks. She worked with Thomas Pringle, who was abolitionist writer and Secretary to the Anti-Slavery Society. Prince's life after her autobiography is not much known. Abolition in the West Indies came about by 1840. Her personal accounts were strong and very direct. Henry Sylvester Williams was a Trinidadian lawyer, councilor, and writer. He was famous for his work in the Pan-African Movement. He went into North America and Britain to further his education. In the UK, he formed the African Association in 1897 where it came to challenge racism, imperialism, and paternalism. That organization wanted to advance the interests of all African peoples of the world. In 1900, Williams organized the First Pan-African Conference which was held at Westminster Hall in London. WEB DuBois was in the conference. DuBois even admitted that Henry Sylvester Williams influenced heavily his thinking about the Pan African Movement. He was the first black man to be called to the bar in the Cape Colony after he studied to be a barrister. He was born in 1869 in Arouca, Trinidad. At the age of 17, Williams was a teacher with a Class III Certification. He was posted to the government school in San Fernando. According to the records, he was one of only 3 teachers with certificates in that year. He could teach, sing, and play the piano regularly. He fought for reform in government. Many brothers in Trinidad back in that time were race-conscious and fought for liberation like John Jacob Thomas, Maresse Smith, Mzumbo Lazare, C. E. Petioni, the Reverend Phillip Henry Douglin. John Jacob Thomas' book entitled, "Froudacity" from 1889 wanted black people to have more self-government. Thomas's ideas inspired Williams. Williams would spread the message of Pan-Africanism globally, especially in Jamaica, Trinidad, and the States. When he came into London after working in Cape Town, he wanted to fight for the equality of all human beings. "We should not be deprived of equal justice because of the colour of our skins," he said. He soon was elected to public office in Britain. He was one of the first black human beings to be elected in public office in the modern era of British history. He continued to work in devotion in Africa. Williams didn't want colonists to dictate the political or social affairs of African peoples. He passed away on March 26, 1911. He was only 42 years old. He was buried at Lapeyrouse Cemetery, Port of Spain. A memorial plaque is on the site of his former home at 38 Church Street, Marylebone. It was unveiled on October 12, 2007. From Toussaint L'Ouverture, Queen Nanny, and to Kwame Ture, we can find Afro-Caribbeans contributing a great deal to the struggle of black liberation.

 

Malcolm X worked in a great deal in the Cold War era. He was a revolutionary, a nationalist, and a pan African nationalist. He was a never a liberal Democrat as implied by the late Manning Marable. The colonial movements in Africa and Asia influenced Malcolm X to advocate liberation and independence for the human beings of color in the world. He criticized capitalism as well.  Malcolm X knew that the fight against black oppressed in the U.S. was linked to the Western imperial attacks against foreign nations too. That is why he wanted the former colonial peoples of the world to unite with American blacks as a means to make America accountable for its crimes (and to allow justice, freedom, and equality to really exist in the global society). Marable is definitely wrong to assume that Malcolm X supported the Arizona Republican Senator Barry Goldwater for President in the 1964 election. Goldwater back then was an extremely reactionary, anti-Communist libertarian who had voted against the Civil Rights Act. Malcolm X said that Goldwater was a wolf and the so called liberals were foxes in the same machine. Malcolm X in his own article on September 12, 1964 said that he didn't support LBJ or Goldwater. So, Malcolm X knew that the Republicans and the Democrats were the enemies of black rights. Only via revolutionary action can we can see rights for the homeless, the poor, and the oppressed, not just the workers. The reformists never work sufficient to engineer real change since you just have a slicker form of imperialism. We know what the Republican Party is all about. Yet, the reformist Democratic Party wants us to use pressure politics and token moves to not gain true revolutionary changes, but accommodation to the existing order mixed with a few crumbs. That is why the bipartisan war on crime was influenced by the 1968 Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Street Act that was passed under Democratic President Johnson (even before Nixon's war on crime action). In that administration, COINTELPRO or the Cold War domestic Counterintelligence Program existed. It targeted numerous social activists. In 1968, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover vowed, “The Negro youth and moderate[s] must be made to understand that if they succumb to revolutionary teachings, they will be dead revolutionaries.” The FBI via COINTELPRO killed 38 Black Panthers and railroaded hundreds of others into prison. Now, there are some who want to believe in the bootstraps deception. It is the lie where victims are blamed for their own oppression and it involved the near deification of private, corporate power. It is a reactionary philosophy. Even as intelligent as Booker T. Washington was, Booker T. Washington was still dead wrong to have anti-union, pro-accommodationist views. Even rich capitalist Andrew Carnegie gave Washington and his wife a lifetime income. Even with the Democrats in power, we still have harsh conditions in the ghettos, mass unemployment, the mass incarceration of human beings, police brutality, etc. Now, the state is used as an instrument of the ruling class to suppress human rights (via crooked cops, prisons, unjust laws, etc.). Malcolm X spoke eloquently to the illusions in the Democratic Party when he said, “Either party you align yourself with is suicide because both parties are criminal. Both parties are responsible for the criminal condition that exists.” Also, the Brother Dr. Martin Luther King was definitely a revolutionary. He opposed the Vietnam War, criticized the weaknesses of capitalism, he supported anti-imperialist, revolutionary movements in the Motherland of Africa, and he wanted a redistribution of economic including political power (just like Brother Malcolm X). Ultimately, the Western establishment allowed token reforms in society as advanced by some of the middle class without radical changes to the USA. We have the right to have real equality, jobs, decent housing, and adequate schools.

 

 

 

Like others have been predicting, both parties are uniting for attacks on Medicare. Before closed doors of course, the White House and congressional Republicans are talking about a deal. This deal will impose devastating cuts on Medicare, which will harm millions of working human beings. The New York Times wrote about this story. It reported on the secret meetings between President Barack Obama and House including Senate Republicans. The President told the Republicans that he will deliver Democratic votes for the historic attacks on Medicare. He calls these measures as a "balanced" package. It is in the interest of the 1% to have quasi austerity not the working citizens of America including the poor. He will have token tax increases on the wealthy. Now, both parties want to deal with Medicare Parts A and B. These parts cover hospital care and doctor visits. They are used to impose major increases in deductible payments on millions of beneficiaries. A combined deductible of the kind being proposed will greatly increase costs for the ca. 80% of Medicare beneficiaries who use doctor and outpatient services (not hospital care in any given year). Retirees and others covered by Medicare who are not sick enough to require surgery or hospitalization (and they need to see their doctors on a regular basis) would face increases in out of pocket costs. Medicare is enrolling about 50 million Americans; about 40 million human beings would be hit by the proposed increase in deductibles. 25 years ago, an attack on Medicare came about. This was in the last year of the Reagan administration. Numerous Congressional Democrats opposed it. Now, the Democrats wants reforms ironically that could cut Medicare along with the GOP. The White House mentions that these changes will only apply to those eligible for Medicare after 2016. Now, President Barack Obama is proposing a 15 percent surcharge on Medigap plans. These plans will make them more expensive (they are already purchased at significant cost by many retirees in order to provide protection from rising health care costs). The establishment Left and Right claim that they want to discourage folks from seeking unneeded treatments. Yet, this plan will deny many tests and treatments to the working class or the majority of the population. The wealthy can afford any care plan they want to. This attack on Medicare is used behind our backs, which is highly antidemocratic. These austerity plans continue. We know that Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor wanted to restructure Medicare Parts A and B from 2011. Virginia Senator Mark Warner wants a fiscal deal. He said that he wants systemic reform. Medicare is now limited as it is with Medicare Advantage plans, Medigap and the prescription drug plan enacted under the George W. Bush administration. All of these counter-reforms have enriched the private insurance industry and pharmaceutical giants at the expense of the working class. Still, Medicare did do some good in extending the lives of millions of citizens including their qualities of life. It is one of many social reforms that assisted America. Now, Medicare is under attack by the establishment for the sake of deficit hawk extremism. In our world, even some in the mainstream media advance lies. There is the barbarism from drone attacks to depleted uranium utilized against even civilians. There is a duopoly in America where alternative political voices nationally are heavily suppressed and falsely marginalized. Our constitutional rights have been violated among all of us (irrespective of our background or ethnicity). Fascism didn't die with Nazism. The reality is that the system of cartel-capitalism with its feudalism and oligarchy is heavily responsible for the plight of the homeless, the poor, and the oppressed in the world. Also, the Tea Party route of revoking social programs, having a near pogrom against immigrants, deregulate the economy fully, and allow private control of all features of society are things (which are advanced by Ayn Rand, Milton Freidman, Ludwig von Mises, and others like them) that I reject completely. That system should end and the people ought to rule their own society not the super-rich elite.

 

 

Now, we have the statistics on the truth of gun rights. The reality is that law abiding citizens having gun rights is fine and that reality is not immoral at all. We know that that the numbers of firearms have increased since 1970 and the overall rate of homicide and suicide have not risen massively at all. In 1968, the UK passed laws that reduced the number of licensed firearms that reduced firearm availability. UK homicide rates have steadily risen since then. Ironically, firearm used in crimes has doubled in the decade after the UK heavily banned handguns. Most violent crime is caused by a small minority of repeat offenders. In the USA, the vast majority of mass public shootings have the assailants having signs of mental health issues prior to the killings. Concealed carriers have prevented crimes for years. A citizen with a gun stopped a knife wielding man as he began stabbing human beings in a Salt Lake store. A citizen takes out a shooter while the police were pinned down in Early, Texas. 39 states have right to carry laws and statistics show that in these states that the crime rate fell (or did not rise at all). The Bureau of Justice Statistics, online database, reviewing Texas and U.S. violent crime from 1995-2001 found that assaults fell 250% faster in the second year after Texas implemented its concealed carry law. There has been a drop in murder and rapes as well. So, the concealed carry law in Texas has worked without some Wild West scenario. Of the 14,000 CCW licensees in Oregon, only 4 (or 0.03% of them) were convicted of criminal (not necessarily violent) use or possession of a firearm. According to the Gun Crimes Drop at Virginia Bars And Restaurants, Richmond Times-Dispatch, August 14, 2011, reporting data from the Virginia State Police, Virginia in the first year where CCW holders were allowed to, the number of major crimes involving firearms at bars and restaurants statewide declined 5.2%. Guns have prevented millions of crimes a year or thousands of crimes every single day. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms from 1998, 90% of all violent crimes in America do not involve a firearm of any type. Among some of the states with the highest homicide rates, most of them have restrictive or very restrictive gun laws. The courts have consistently ruled that the police have no obligation to protect individuals. In Warren v. District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. App. 1981), the court states that: "...courts have without exception concluded that when a municipality or other government entity undertakes to furnish police services, it assumes a duty only to the public at large and not to individual members of the community..." Switzerland has relatively lenient gun control for Europe. It has the third lowest homicide rate of the top nine major European countries (and the same per capital rate as England and Wales). Australia and England, which heavily banned gun ownership among civilians, have the highest rates of robbery, sexual assault, and assault with force of the top 17 industrialized countries (According to Criminal Victimization in Seventeen Industrialized Countries from the Dutch Ministry of Justice in 2001). Many leaders throughout human history believed that law abiding human beings have the right to own arms. Now, this doesn't mean that we should have the status quo or do nothing to decrease gun violence. We know what works. We ought to target illegal gun trafficking, handle mental health issues, fight against poverty & evil conditions in our communities, utilize gun education for the mass public, and execute common sense gun safety programs, which will decrease gun violence in our land of the United States of America.

 

By Timothy